For the following case vignette, develop an action plan consisting of 3-4 action steps that the social worker should take in her situation (250 word minimum)..
Case Vignette: Stacy Lynn
Background
In her sophomore year, Stacy entered her first social work course thinking she was interested in working with older adults. She envisioned herself working as a social worker in a nursing home or as a social worker practicing with the local Area Agency on Aging. A few semesters later, it was time for her to fill out her field internship application and interview with the field director. On her application, she listed three preferred internships, all of them at agencies that worked with older adults. When it was time for her interview, Stacy entered the field director’s office expecting to hear that she had been placed in one of the agencies listed on her application. During the interview, the field director reminded Stacy that the knowledge and skills of social work were transferable to many different practice settings. She encouraged Stacy to use her bachelor of social work (BSW) placement as an opportunity to become a generalist social work practitioner. She could expose herself to an area of social work that was different from what she expected and still develop the practice skills and experience to work with older adults. She reminded Stacy that if she continued on to her master of social work (MSW) degree, she could then do a placement with older adults as part of her area of specialization. Stacy heeded the field director’s advice and ended up completing her placement with the local juvenile probation office as a forensic social work intern. Her decision changed the course of her professional career.
Stacy worked with an experienced probation officer as her field instructor. The probation officer had earned an MSW and a certificate in criminology. She also had completed a basic probation officer training program that made her eligible for hire as a probation officer. At first, Stacy spent her time at the internship observing. Eventually she worked with a small caseload of adolescents under the direct supervision of the field instructor. During her internship, Stacy learned how prevalent issues of loss and grief were for many of the adolescents that ended up on their caseload. She also learned how important relationships with parents and grandparents were in helping teens make better decisions about their future and stay out of the criminal justice system. Most significant, the internship changed what Stacy wanted to do with her life. She wanted to pursue a career as a juvenile probation officer. After finishing her BSW, Stacy earned her MSW in an advanced-standing program. An advanced-standing program allowed Stacy to earn her MSW in just one year. She then earned her basic probation officer training certificate, passed the Juvenile Probation Officer State Exam, and was hired as a juvenile probation officer at the same office of her field instructor, who was now the chief juvenile probation officer in Fayette County, Georgia.
The Context
Fayette County is in the northwestern part of Georgia, just fifteen miles south of the city limits of Atlanta. The juvenile probation office is located in the city of Fayetteville, the county seat. The juvenile probation officers assigned to Fayette County are part of the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), which employs more than four thousand staff members organized into four regional and twelve district offices. Stacy works in the District 3a office of the northwest region for the DJJ. Her basic responsibilities include conducting intake assessments; developing predisposition or presentence assessments; and supervising youth who are placed on probation, sentenced to short-term incarceration, or committed to the DJJ’s custody of juvenile courts.
The Situation
As she does every Tuesday morning, Stacy heads to the regional youth detention center to meet with teens assigned to her caseload. Shane Young, the first teen she meets with that morning, is scheduled for release from the detention center by Friday. Stacy needs to develop a release plan for Shane that will help him transition back into the community and remain out of detention in the future. In preparation for meeting with Shane, Stacy had met with his parents, the school principal, and representatives from a few human service agencies. In talking with Shane’s parents, Stacy had learned that they were fearful for him to return home after his latest altercation. At age fifteen, Shane is six foot three inches tall and weighs 290 pounds. He is bigger than his mother and stepfather. The police arrested him two months ago in the middle of the night after he assaulted his eleven-year-old step- brother while in the midst of a drunken rage. This was the second assault incident for Shane in the past year, prompting the judge to sentence him to thirty days in detention and six months of probation.
In the few weeks that Stacy has met with Shane, she has found him to be a likable young man. He also seemed to benefit from his time in detention. He attended school, participated in an alcohol and drug support group, and was a model inmate, avoiding altercations with any of the other juveniles. Shane also expressed remorse about hurting his stepbrother. Despite her update and assessment to his parents, they remained fearful of how Shane would behave after he returned home. Stacy has to develop her report for the judge by Wednesday at the end of the day so the judge can approve his release and rehabilitation plan. She also had to talk to Shane about his parents’ fear and unwillingness to have him come home. She is concerned about how Shane would respond to his parents’ fear. She hopes she can eventually intervene with his parents to make a plan for him to re- turn home and for them to feel safe. As she sat down to meet with Shane, Stacy wondered what to say and what to recommend to the judge.